Ms. Ruin's Playthings: smeared and smudged

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Matchbook Swap

Hello out there! I'm still alive...I know my posts have been few and far between. I was having a dry spell on the paper front as my photography has been keeping me busy. So I committed to a few swaps in the month of July to keep me moving. The first swap I participated in was the Matchbook Swap at Smeared & Smudged. I had never made a matchbook so it was a little stressful but so much fun and I do really love the way they turned out. And not only did I committ to making one, but I committed to making TWO! I will also receive two matchbooks to add to my own collection. In fact, I came home today from a retreat to find a package from Greece (see above)! A big huge thank you to Ike for the lovely postcard and one helluva matchbook. It's completely wicked and I love it! THANKS, IKE!

{sorry for the crappy picture}

And now onto the matchbooks I made. They are both Halloween themed, I hope you don't mind. This first one is for Tori. I hope you like it, Tori --it will be in the mail to you tomorrow!

I left space in the book for little pictures and I am also sending additional Halloween themed word stickers so that you can use them over your photos or wherever you'd like.

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This next one is for Trisha. And this one is not just Halloween, but it's vintage too! There's no room for pictures but it's a fun little book to look through.

/end Matchbook Swap. :) Thank you to Black Dragon for organizing this swap --it was so much fun!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Skull Appreciation Day

Welcome Smeared and Smudged Hoppers and Happy Skull Appreciation Day to you! My project didn't turn out as cool as I wanted but I had this vision of decorating an altered wallet --so I did. Again, not superb, but hey, it has skulls on it!

I first started with this little canvas wallet by Maya Road. These are very durable and they are great to alter and keep as decorative pieces. However, I want something that I can carry and use and throw in the washer if necessary. You can also dry these in a dryer but I will not be doing that with this one because I used embossing powder. Can you imagine?

My first step was to stamp MS. RUIN on the front of the wallet with acrylic stamps and an embossing pad. I poured black embossing powder over the letters and then applied heat. I made the mistake of taking a brush and brushed embossing liquid onto some of the letters and then went through the embossing process again. I didn't really care for that method so some letters are darker than others, but that's okay.

I then stamped skulls all over the back side also using the same embossing process. These cute little skulls are by Dyan Reaveley from her Dylusions line.

Check out this cute little lightning bolt. I drew it on the canvas wallet with a marker then I took a paint brush and dipped in embossing liquid and filled it in. I then poured the black embossing powder and applied heat.

Okay, so how did I dye it? Well, I took a small plastic tub and put hot water in it and then added Rit liquid dye --just like this one shown here. In fact, I used the wine color. I then dipped the canvas bag in it and let it soak for about 5 minutes. I also dyed the white lace which turned it into a pretty mauve-ish color. I rinsed everything under cold water and then placed them outside to dry. Once everything was dry I adhered the lace with hot glue. Remember, hot glue is your friend!

And that my dear friends is how I made this very easy skull appreciation day wallet. Now I just need some money to put in it. :)

As a bonus I am going to feature a tag I made a couple of years ago featuring a dapper skull man. I now see all the things I would do differently had I created it today. But I didn't...so here is my throwback skull tag to add to today's hop!